Swindled (18 page)

“No,” Beth grudgingly admitted twitching her nose. “I’d have to agree.” Beth decided she didn’t want to hear what he said next. Didn’t want to hear how he wasn’t planning on seeing her again. That the only reason she was seeing him now is that David had inadvertently bumped into her here. She wondered if humming loudly would be considered immature in these circumstances.

“Well after our one night stand, a policeman woke me up to ask me to confirm your alibi because you were or are a suspect in your brother’s murder,” David continued looking intently at her.

“And that makes a difference to the whole one night stand uncomplicated uncommitted angle?” Beth asked raising an eyebrow at him. Deciding she could take her medicine even if it was a bitter one, she thought she may as well make him spell it out. Maybe it would make him a little uncomfortable.

“Well you intrigued me,” David admitted taking the wind out of her sails.

“What?” Beth squeaked as warmth flooded her body. She suddenly realised that the sexy man in front of her had grown intense and focused on her. Beth never had a low self-esteem but for a man to admit to attraction, without being naked, was… well something more serious relationships were based on. Wasn’t it? Could he also be feeling an attraction?

“And I think that I intrigue you,” he continued.

“What makes you think that?” Beth asked making a bid for time to think about what he was saying. Was the feeling mutual?

“I just saw the pulse in your neck jump and you are panting,” David replied cheerfully drawing her back into their discussion. He looked entirely comfortable sitting in her easy chair in jeans and a loose green sweater.

Beth snapped her gaping mouth shut and told herself firmly that panting was not appropriate behaviour at this juncture of time. Her body was not helping in calming herself down, it seemed to have developed a mind of its own. Every nerve she had felt like it was jumping for utter joy.

“I want you,” David ended confidently sitting forward in his chair and keeping his eyes firmly on her.

“Yes we’ve established that we have a mutual attraction,” Beth said faintly.

“It’s more then that. I want to find out who you are, what you think about, what makes you give that little smile that you are smiling now.” David moved to sit next to Beth on the couch. “I don’t know what it is but I just keep thinking about you.”

“I know. I have the same problem,” Beth admitted as she watched David move closer to her. She felt wary, almost like a hunted animal being stalked by a predator. A large predator she amended to herself as he sank into the couch next to her.

“You can’t get yourself out of your mind?” he asked teasing her.

“No… I think about you,” Beth slapped a hand to her forehead. “I can’t believe I just admitted that.” She was laying herself open now and with her luck that was never a good idea.

“Why not admit it?” David shrugged. He met Beth's eyes

“You’re a complete stranger,” Beth pointed out.

“This has stopped you from showing your appreciation for me, or at the very least my body, before?” he asked pointedly with an arched eyebrow and an exaggerated lecherous grin.

“Oh stop!” Beth laughed. “Okay you aren’t a complete stranger and yes I admit that you intrigue me. What does it mean? What now?”

“Well. Why not just try getting together?” he asked. “Dating or seeing each other.” David ran a hand through his hair looking disarming and charming. “Whatever they call it these days. We just need to get to know each other and see where it takes us.”

“Okay,” Beth smiled and reached up to brush a stray hair from his forehead. She leaned closer to him enjoying the heat emanating from his body.

“So what are you doing up here while the party is in full swing?” He asked leaning closer. His face grew more serious and focused.

“I came up for a shower. All those thieves and business piranhas have left me feeling slimy,” Beth admitted distracted from the conversation by the way his blue eyes caught the sunlight.

“Then let’s have a shower,” David said with a quirk to his lips as he stood up. “And you can explain that story about Brian’s closets and lingerie.”

“Pervert,” she replied laughing looking up at him.

“I can’t help myself,” he said shrugging. “Look at what you’re wearing.”

As she watched him Beth realised she felt calmer then she had in a long time. Somehow having everything out in the open made it easier. David reached a hand down and pulled Beth up to him.

He leaned forward and gently kissed her on the lips. Beth inhaled the scent of him and felt her knees weaken.

“I know most first dates start with dinner or a movie but I’ve never been one for doing what everyone else does,” he said gently as he pulled her against his chest.

“Tell me about it,” Beth murmured thinking back to the night they had spent together. Unlike any man she had slept with before, he actually seemed to enjoy finding out what she liked.

David leaned down and said, “What was that?” with a grin on his face. He knew exactly what she had been thinking. Beth felt the blood flood her face.

He laughed down at her and kissed her again. Beth laughed back. Slowly stripping they moved toward the bathroom together. Every other moment they paused and kissed and laughed. The first time together had been thrilling but fast and half the excitement had been the whole one night stand element. This time around it was more an acknowledgement that it could be the start of something. Maybe nothing serious but the romantic in Beth’s soul was starting to dance around with her nerves. Maybe this might turn into something dreams are made of. Maybe David was right. Maybe it could work out between the two of them.

Standing with her back against David’s naked chest, she looked at their reflection in the bathroom mirror. They fit. It quite simply looked right. David’s hands slipped down to cup her breasts in their red wrapped elegance and Beth caught her breath. She leaned into his body and reached back to hold him more tightly to her as he slipped her bra down her arms and off. He felt tall and lean and strong against her sending warmth through her body. He gently rubbed her nipples between his thumb and forefingers.

Beth caught his heated gaze in the mirror. He was as turned on as she was watching their reflection she realised. David slid a hand down her front and into her panties watching her face’s reaction. Beth’s back arched. Her head fell back and she shut her eyes relishing the feel of him. All she could feel was David hot and warm against her. She slid her hands down into his briefs pushing them down behind her. He helped, taking her panties at the same time.

Turning Beth kissed David sucking for a second longer on his bottom lip she pulled him into the shower with her. Under the spray of warm water they kissed and stroked each other, slipping the condom on. The deliberate calm that had let them enjoy each others bodies began to fade and there was a frantic increase as the passion began to consume them. David reached down and lifted Beth up against the tiled bathroom wall.

Their hips met and he pushed between her thighs. He thrust against her and in her. She wrapped her legs around him. Both gasped as the exquisite pleasure consumed them. David tightened his grip and shifted her, changing the angle and suddenly Beth’s whole body convulsed as the release hit her. Heat melted her muscles and she tightened her legs around him as he thrust into her body. She undulated her hips drawing a strangled groan from David’s mouth. His climax pulsed through him. Desperately trying to catch their breath both leaned into one another against the bathroom wall, hot water showering down on them.

“I think I’m dying,” David sputtered.

“Don’t even joke!” Beth groaned back and moaned again as he pulled back from her body letting her legs down. She wasn’t sure if she would be able to carry her own weight but if they stayed in the shower much longer they would start looking like raisins. Drying him off would be far more fun.

David and Beth spent the next two hours together, the funeral downstairs forgotten. They talked, laughed and generally got to know one another. Beth was surprised how much they had in common. By the time they surfaced again she felt like she had known him forever and yet it was just a few short hours. They headed back down to the funeral to catch the tail end of the celebrations or rather commiserations. Luckily by four o’clock even the most diehard of funeral goers had given up. The funeral director, who had ended up a jittering wreck by lunchtime, pulled himself together enough to sort out the retrieval of Brian’s body. By early evening the house was thankfully peaceful and dead body free.

Chapter 32

Spending the evening over pizza with Scott and Vickie, Beth realised that David fit. He talked about sports with Scott while Vickie regaled him with tales of scheming woe from the funeral. Together they all sat laughing late into the evening. It felt nice to be a part of a couple. Beth watched David’s face while he talked. He enthralled her. By the time the two of them were tucked tightly up against each other in bed Beth realised that he made her truly happy. She closed her eyes and drifted off to sleep content that he was here with her.

It seemed like minutes later that she woke again. There was a light spilling in between the cracks of the curtains so she must have slept well. It was morning and snuggled against the warm body sleeping next to her, Beth couldn’t for the life of her understand what had woken her up. Her body felt stretched and muscles relaxed. She felt content and happy. Dragging her eyes open she realised that there was someone in her flat. That’s what had pulled her from her dreamless sleep. Beth thought about it. It wasn’t unusual for Vickie in full nesting urge to wake her with hot coco these days but it seemed early in the day for that. Giving up on getting back to sleep, she slipped out of bed and went out into the sitting room to see what was going on. Scott was waiting for her in his robe looking half asleep and grumpy. With his morning shadow he looked more menacing then she would have thought possible. No doubt about it Scott was not very happy.

“Those investigators are back. They want us all downstairs,” he spoke quietly trying not to wake David while keeping his temper under control. Beth felt all the breath leave her body as he said it.

“Again?! What’s going on?” Beth whispered back wrapping her robe more tightly around her. Suddenly the relaxed warm glow that her body had woken up in was gone. She felt cold and anxious.

“I don’t know. He wouldn’t say,” Scott ran a hand through his hair. He was helpless to stop the police from harassing them and it was starting to bother him. What could they do Beth wondered? It wasn’t like they could kick the police out of the house. What was the world coming to that they seemed to have less rights then a common criminal when none of them had done anything wrong?

“We’ll be down in a minute,” David said from the doorway of her bedroom making both Scott and Beth jump. He had pulled on a pair of jeans and looked wide awake which was more then Beth could say for herself. He and Scott shared a significant look as Scott headed back toward the stairs. She frowned trying to concentrate on the seriousness of the situation, on the fact that there were policemen once again waiting downstairs but Beth couldn’t keep her eyes off of David. He looked warm, rumpled and rugged. Standing in the doorway of her bedroom he looked delicious. Watched her he had a heated look in his eyes and a smile on his face.

“Is this going to become a habit?” he asked tilting his head to the side. It made him look disarming and sweetly boyish.

“What’s that?” Beth asked him as she walked toward the door. She was having a hard time keeping track of her thoughts.

“Being woken up after a night with you by the police?” David replied with a steady grin. She could tell he wasn’t overly worried by the situation. The serious in his look had faded as Scott had left. No doubt the police would bare the brunt of it if they suggested anything remotely untoward. Beth felt warmth fill her again chasing away the chill in the morning air. She had someone on her side. She smiled realising that his support meant more to her then anything else. She wouldn’t have to face it alone and be the strong one. She had someone to share her worries with. It felt exhilarating.

“Very funny,” she said. She put her hands on his shoulders and leaned up to kiss him. Beth couldn’t help it. Having him there was a dream come true. His very presence made her feel safer and protected. It was heady stuff.

“Good morning,” she said and moved away. David reached out to grab her hand and pulled her back against his chest. He cupped her face with his other hand and leaned down to kiss her more deeply. “Sorry about the wake up call. Again.”

“It makes it memorable, I’ll give you that,” he said. “Of course you are memorable without the police alarm clock.” She smiled up at him and together they pulled on more clothes and headed down the stairs.

Minutes later they were all together in the sitting room. Joseph Serrate was looking very serious as he sat opposite the couch. His partner couldn’t take his eyes off David. The man was practically drooling. Must be a rugby fan Beth thought. She looked back at Joseph. There was something in his face that made a shiver run down her spine. This was not going to be good news.

“Has something happened?” Beth asked feeling faintly sick. She didn’t know if she could take more accusations today.

“I’m afraid that Tina Shuler was found dead last night,” Joseph leaned forward to reply. He looked from Beth to David and back again. He continued, “She worked at your brother’s firm. We are investigating any potential links between it and Brian’s death.” His voice was quiet and respectful. He must have an inkling, Beth decided, of just what this was doing to their family. Even he must see that coming back to them over and over again was taking its toll. They had done nothing and even if he thought they had there was no evidence to suggest they were linked. Beth looked again at the detective. She noticed he was very pale and his eyes looked sunken like he hadn’t slept. This was not a good week to be a detective.

“Oh no. That’s terrible.” Vickie said sitting with Scott on the end of the couch. She was pale herself and looked tired which given that she was uncomfortable in any one position for long was not unusual. Beth wished she could spare her sister this but another murder meant serious business. How awful.

“What can you tell me about her?” Joseph asked. He had his notebook out and despite his obvious exhaustion he looked alert.

Beth and Vickie shared a glance. What could they say about Tina other then that she was very much like every other girlfriend Brian had hired over the past two years? Vickie frowned and Beth said, “She was very young.” It just sounded horrible to describe someone as a floozy even if that was the case. She wasn’t going to do it and it looked like Vickie wasn’t either.

Scott didn’t remember meeting Tina face to face although he had heard about her through the office grapevine. There just wasn’t much he could add to the investigation. David on the other hand was able to give a brief account of Tina’s brush with himself and Beth in the hallway. The detective frantically took down notes but there wasn’t much else to say.

Beth thought about the drunken blond girl that had bumped into them the day before. Had it only been yesterday that she and David had watched Tina leave the funeral with a teary eye?

“I don’t think that she liked Anne very much from what I remember Brian saying.” Beth said when David had finished. She wracked her brains for anything else that might help the detectives. She vaguely remembered Brian complaining that the two secretaries were at each others throats all day. That is when they were actually speaking to one another. Other then that Tina was just another face in the office.

“They didn’t get along,” Vickie agreed as the detective paused in his writing to look at them.

“What makes you say that?” he prompted looking from Vickie to Beth.

“Well they were both at the funeral and went out of their way not to say anything to each other. It seems strange now because so many of the office people were making a real effort to comfort one another,” Vickie explained cautiously. It was all idle speculation really. They didn’t know Tina well enough to say much more.

Beth looked at the detective and took a deep breath. “Actually I got the impression that she was Brian’s latest romantic interest,” she said. They had to tell Joseph. He would no doubt hear it from somewhere else if he didn’t already know that Tina was one of Brian’s flings. She closed her eyes and went on to explain what Tina had said the day before about being hid in Brian’s closet. David confirmed it and the detective wrote more in his notebook. It may be nothing but maybe it would help.

The detective took down notes once they had finished and there was a pause in the conversation. “Was it a common thing for him to do? Get involved with staff?” he asked.

“Well it wasn’t uncommon,” Beth responded shrugging. She looked up at the detective. “You might want to look in Brian’s bedroom closets again,” she added lightly rubbing her finger along her bottom lip. She wasn’t sure she should be telling him this but it might be important to the investigation. She wanted to help after all.

Joseph looked back at Beth. Scott and David also both turned and focused their eyes on her. Vickie rubbed a hand over her eyes and groaned softly. Beth tried not to grimace. She was getting herself into hot water, again.

“Why?” Joseph asked calmly watching Beth’s face flush a light pink. Whose bright idea had it been to get that paperwork anyway she wondered?

“Well you’ll find some evidence,” Beth explained feeling awkward. She had hoped that the police had recovered the bra themselves, deluding herself that it was probably not important to the investigation. A wild hope she realised but it was what had made her feel better about not pointing out their discovery earlier.

“And you know this how?” Joseph asked prompting her again for more detail.

“I was in Brian’s flat after he died. Along with a friend of mine, Karin Hollgate,” she said glanced over at her sister. “We were picking up documents for our business and we came across a few items of, um clothing.” The detective made notes as Beth explained what had happened including Karin and Beth’s frantic adventure in the closet. By the end of her explanation Beth could have sworn there was a small smile on the detectives face. She shook her head she must be imagining it.

To the side Scott was having a whispered conversation with his wife. It sounded like he was forbidding her from ever leaving his sight again. Beth tried not to snicker. No doubt the two of them were going to have another of their heated discussions about just what classified as adult behaviour. It was an ongoing debate with them. Vickie always argued soundly that any man, grown or not, who jumps up and down to support a team of guys kicking a leather ball around could hardly be classified as adult. Scott on the other hand seemed to think that the regular adventures that Vickie found herself dragged into by Beth and friends could constitute purely childish tendencies. Beth sometimes wondered if the two of them had decided to get pregnant just to have another play mate around.

Beth shook her head as Vickie replied to Scott that she was of sound mind and body and if she wanted to go out she could. Scott didn’t look like he believed her. Beth looked over at David to see how he was taking it; she hadn’t had the chance to explain the story the night before. He had a look of comical disbelief on his face and just looked at her with those piercing eyes of his. No doubt he thought she was a mad woman. Sometimes Beth herself thought she was certifiably insane. Breaking in had seemed like such a good idea at the time.

“He was known to um like his secretaries,” Scott said diplomatically pulling himself back to the conversation at hand after the detective cleared his throat once or twice. The other detective stayed well in the background looking more like an enforcer then an investigator. He had managed to drag his eyes off David which Beth thought probably took a great deal of self discipline.

“Brian’s exploits were legendary to everyone who knew him. Discrete he was not,” Vickie added with a sigh. It was embarrassing just how many young, blond secretaries Brian had gone through over the past few years. The man had either had an incredible stamina or a regular supply of Viagra.

“Is there anything else we can help with?” Beth asked the detective. She had a small hope that all this would go away now. They had done what they could and she wanted to get back into her comfort zone far away from the hostilities of the outside world.

“Yes,” Joseph hesitated clearly he didn’t want to continue but felt compelled to do so. “I need to ask all of you where you were last night.”

“What!” Vickie and Beth exclaimed together. Beth sat up straight. She had, over the course of the interview, relaxed against David’s body without even realising it. With Joseph’s words ringing in her ears she pulled away and sat feeling like a target once again.

“I don’t believe it. You can’t think its one of us?” Scott said. He was shaking his head at the detectives. Its seemed in conceivable that within one week they were pretty much back where they had started, on the target list for the local Met.

“It’s routine for the most part. Although I can’t help feeling you,” the detective said looking at Beth, “are more involved then you’re letting on.” He didn’t react to their outrage or seem perturbed by their response to what he was saying. Maybe it was routine for him to throw families into turmoil Beth thought. Maybe he was just jaded to human responses to accusations. She shivered.

“Again? You think I killed someone again?” Beth said faintly feeling like she was going to pass out. This was the second time in a week that she was being considered a suspect in a murder. David started laughing and gently pulled her back against him. In a second he had diffused the potentially fraught situation. He explained calmly and pointedly to the detectives that he had been with Beth all night. Scott and Vickie had been in the house as well and retired together. His matter of fact approach seemed to put an end to the detective’s questions. David had been firm and clear on their stance and without much more discussion stood to escort the men out of the house.

By the time the detectives left Beth was just about recovering from the shock of it all. Vickie and Scott had gone into the kitchen to put breakfast together and no doubt finish their ‘discussion’ on the merits of staying out of trouble. Beth just sat there. She hadn’t been able to speak; she was so stunned by the entire situation. Another death and yet more pointed questions about her whereabouts. Beth could hardly credit it. David came back and sat down pulling Beth back into his arms as he did so. She went gratefully, she needed the comfort of his strength and support.